Active Living Healthy Lifestyles.

In the recently released, Vision 2000 initiative, the National Recreation and Park Association proclaimed the health and wellness of the American public as a priority strategy. To this end, the national organization has engaged in dozens of coalition efforts to bring the recreation and park profession to the forefront as the medical, educational, and fitness industries tackle the awesome challenge of increasing physical activity nationwide. The importance of this national health agenda focus will gain momentum as the

Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity is released in the spring of 1996.

Extreme infrastructure

Since the early 1980s, when NRPA created the National Fitness Coalition, the Association has demonstrated the role of the recreation and park profession in the fitness and wellness movement. Our profession has been largely responsible for developing an extensive infrastructure of park facilities nationwide. In addition, we have pushed to make fitness programs a main thrust of recreation services provided at community centers for all age groups. The NRPA membership has implemented a series of nationally sponsored programs which have encouraged participation in recreation and physical activities. Public policy and coalition initiatives have given us opportunities to influence the current Healthy People 2000 target goals and the soon to be published Surgeon General's Report on physical activity.

Unfortunately, the entire fitness and wellness industry remains perplexed by how to reduce the nearly 80% of all adults considered physically inactive. The new standards for fitness which call for moderate physical activity accumulated for 30 minutes most days of the week, have confused the public about reduced health risk, increased fitness, and simply enjoying life more. It is apparent that the public's motivation to become more physically active will need to incorporate enjoyment, fulfillment and fun - it must be recreational! Assisting the American public choose activities that are suitable for their own lifestyle and, which offer the greatest health benefit is essential to impacting the quality of life in America.

Clearly, in this context, the recreation and park profession has a great opportunity to position itself as a national leader. NRPA has served the profession well in establishing relations with other fitness and health-related organizations. Recently, NRPA received a national coalition award from the Centers for Disease Control and the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Physical Health Education. This award reflects the existing industry-wide view that the recreation and park profession is an important partner and catalyst for achieving the goal of increased physical activity in America.

Support for Local Partners

NRPA will continue to champion local park and recreation agencies who are local partners and catalysts for improving physical activity through recreation.

In addition, the "Active Living/Healthy Lifestyles" repositioning project, which we are debuting in this issue of Parks & Recreation, will assist all agencies in implementing strategies to initiate a fitness emphasis locally.